


What is reality?

by Phantomxlegend



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt Leo, Hurt/Comfort, Mentioned Percabeth - Freeform, Nightmares, Piper is worried about Leo, Possession, The Argo II - Freeform, The Seven, big sister instincts are really kicking in here, mentioned jiper, more tags to be added maybe, slight Jason/Piper/Leo, slight angst, you'll see it if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23930563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phantomxlegend/pseuds/Phantomxlegend
Summary: There's something wrong, everyone else doesn't seem the same, they're acting different right?  Leo is trapped in his own nightmares, but he doesn't realize that they're nightmares.  Something else is with him in his own body as well, something that obviously is going to do everything that it can to break Leo's spirits, to break his trust with the others.  On the outside, Leo seems normal, if at most acting a bit strancely.  What if the rest of the crew don't notice until it's too late?  Someone needs to help Leo, fast.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace & Leo Valdez, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Piper McLean & Leo Valdez
Comments: 9
Kudos: 73





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I had this idea suddenly come to me as I was trying to sleep in, so obviously after mulling it over a bit I had to quickly get up and write it out. This is going to be a longer fic, I don't know exactly how long but I know that as I'm posting this right now isn't finished. Unless I finish it today, there will be slow updates.  
> There is a bit of Jason/Piper/Leo if you squint hard enough, but it can also be seen as platonic.

_ Leo woke up feeling groggy, he stayed in bed for a few moments longer before forcing himself to get up. _

_ He had work to do, he had to make sure that the Argo II was safely running, make sure that nothing was broken. That was his job, after all, the repair boy. _

_ Leo winced at that thought, he had to be more than just the repair boy. Gaea wouldn’t have made him one of the seven if he was only the repair boy.  _

_ But, Leo thought bitterly, she really only needed something to get the ship up and running so that we can actually get to Athens, that’s all that Gaea needed me for. _

_ His shoulders slumped as he quietly padded to the mess hall, grabbed a quick muffin, and disappeared into the engine room. Maybe if he could find something to keep his hands busy that would also keep his thoughts quiet. _

_ Leo’s head started to throb with an oncoming headache, but he was fine, he’d just work through it and hope that he goes away. _

_ His hand twitched and he nearly dropped his muffin, Leo frowned at his hand. _

_ Stop that, he thought, now is not the time to be dropping muffins all over the floor.  _

_ Leo made a lap of the engine room, looking for anything that could possibly keep him busy, even just an upgrade of some sort. But, unfortunately, everything seemed to be in proper working order, nothing for Leo to do in here. _

_ Of course, Leo could go man the controls and steer the ship for a while. So, Leo wandered out of the engine room and up to the deck. _

_ “Where have you  _ been _ Leo?” Piper asked, exasperation filling her tone. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. _

_ “I’ve been in the engine room for a grand total of ten minutes, what are you talking about?” Leo furrowed his eyebrows, at some point in his adventure to the top deck, he had discarded his muffin. _

_ “No, you’ve been gone for close to an hour and we can’t get the controls to work anymore,” Piper said, casting an accusing glance at Leo like it was somehow his fault, “but I suppose you lose track of time when you’re surrounded by your machines, you just don’t know when to quit and try and doing something else.” _

_ “The controls are down?” Leo asked, trying hard to ignore Piper’s last comment, if he dwelled on it, it would start to hurt too much to bear, “why didn’t you try and come to find me? I was in the engine room, it’s not that hard to find.” _

_ “Don’t you think we checked the engine room?” Piper snapped, “you weren’t in there, so I don’t know what in Hades you were doing or where you were but just get up there and fix the controls before something else happens.” _

_ “Jeez, you don’t need to be so pushy, I’m going, I’m going,” Leo sighed and climbed up to the quarter-deck, Annabeth was leaning over the control panel deep in thought. _

_ “What happened with the controls?” Leo asked. _

_ Annabeth barely gave him a side glance, “we don’t know, something happened and they just shut down and stopped responding, it’s lucky we’re still in the air,” she said. _

_ “Festus knows where to direct us,” Leo said, crouching down under the control panel and unlatching one of the panels. _

_ “Festus has also been shut down somehow,” Annabeth stated coldly. _

_ “What? I thought that Piper turned him on with her charmspeak or something,” Leo said, rocking back and forth on his knees, examining the wiring. _

_ “She did, it’s not working anymore.” _

_ Leo glanced over at where Festus the figurehead was, he wasn’t moving and his head was down. Leo frowned, that wasn’t right. Festus wouldn’t shut down now after whatever Piper’s charmspeak did. _

_ “Just focus on getting the controls working,” Annabeth snapped, crossing her arms in front of her chest. _

_ “I’m working on it.” _

_ Leo leaned into the control panel, looking for anything that might be wrong. He thought that he built this ship more securely, but the ship had also survived a lot of attacks at this point.  _

_ A jolt of electricity made Leo yelp and stumble back. _

_ “One of the wires must have frayed and split,” Leo spluttered, shaking off the tingly feeling in his arms. It must have been one of the bigger wires to cause a shock like that. _

_ Annabeth sighed through her nose and crossed her arms in front of her chest, “Can you fix it?” _

_ “Of  _ course _ I can fix it,” Leo said, “it’s just a frayed wire.” _

_ Leo peered into the tangled mess of wire, looking for the culprit. In the mix of the tangled colors of wires, one of the wires was frayed and sparking. But it looked like someone had purposely cut the wire, there were slash marks around the wire casing, not something that would just happen normally when a wire frays. _

_ “Someone must have cut the wire,” Leo voiced his thoughts, grabbing some supplies from his tool belt to fix the wire. _

_ “What do you mean?” Annabeth asked, her impatience with the Latino boy obviously growing. _

_ “I mean that there are slash marks around the casing and it looks like the wire was cut, what do you think I mean? It’s pretty easy to tell which wires have been frayed and which have been purposely cut,” Leo said, his impatience also growing, “but who could have cut it, it’s not like the electricity would be shut off so that they could cut it. The whole thing is a live wire.” _

_ Immediately Leo’s mind went to Jason, he was the one who could summon lightning, and lightning was electricity so Jason would be able to cut the wire without getting hurt. Leo then felt guilty about having that thought, Jason was Leo’s friend and one of the seven, he wouldn’t try to sabotage their quest. Plus the control deck would be too small for Jason’s gladius to fit through, it would have to be with a dagger. _

_ Leo didn’t really like that observation, it wasn’t really clearing Jason’s name of innocence as him not doing something like that because he’s one of the seven, but more clearing Jason’s name in a way of, he doesn’t have the right tools to do something like that. _

_ “Leo?” Annabeth nudged Leo’s foot and Leo immediately snapped out of his thoughts. _

_ “Right, just gotta patch this up,” Leo swallowed hard, whoever tried to cut the wire thankfully didn’t get too far in trying to cut it, that could have been a disaster. _

_ “Maybe when we had another one of those ambushes someone came up here and tried to mess with the controls,” Leo said. _

_ “Deducing how it happened doesn’t help to get it fixed Leo,” Annabeth said impatiently. _

_ “Yeah, yeah, I know,” Leo wrapped the wire with electrical tape, that is the only thing that he could do with what he had, and without taking apart the entire control panel. _

_ “Try pressing something, see if it works, steer the ship maybe,” Leo instructed. Annabeth leaned over the controls and pressed something, lights flickered on near the railing. _

_ “Okay, so it works,” Leo stood up after reattaching the metal panel and brushed his pants off. Leo glanced over at Festus who was still shut down. There was no one else out on deck except for him and Annabeth—when Leo turned around, Annabeth was gone. _

_ “Must have gone below deck now that she doesn’t need to yell at me,” Leo grumbled. He knew that he probably should have stayed by the controls, considering that Festus was down and couldn’t control the ship. _

_ Leo clambered up to look at Festus, he popped open the panel on his head and glanced inside. Leo’s heart sank, his control disk was missing. The one piece of Festus that Leo didn’t know how to replace. _

_ “There must have been an ambush or something,” Leo said, even though he knew that there was no one on deck. _

_ Leo examined Festus for anything that he could fix, but the only thing that was missing was the control disk, so whoever tried to ambush the ship knew what they were doing. Nothing else seemed to be taken or broke, just the mechanics of the ship. _

_ Leo made his way below decks to the mess hall where hopefully at least some of his friends were so that he could tell them the status. _

_ Are they my friends? Leo thought as he pushed open the door to the mess hall. _

_ Piper, Jason, Hazel, and Annabeth were in the mess hall talking quietly. Their conversation trailed off when Piper spotted Leo in the doorway and elbowed Jason. _

_ “Uhm,” Leo shifted his weight from foot to foot uncomfortably, “did I interrupt something?” _

_ “Do you need something, Leo?” Piper asked, her tone was harsh. _

_ “Well… I came to tell the report on the ship just so everyone knows,” Leo said scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, “I fixed the controls but Festus… he doesn’t have his control disk, someone or something took it so I don’t know how long he’ll be down for.” _

_ “Hm,” Piper said, she didn’t sound like she cared much. _

_ “So we should be up and running again right, it’s safe to fly?” Hazel asked, pushing some of her hair out of her face. _

_ “Yeah, we shouldn’t be at any risk of flying, but maybe we should touch down for a while so we’re not in the air,” Leo said, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt, “the wires in the control panel seemed to be purposely cut instead of just frayed so we don’t know what could happen. In the water, at least we don’t have to worry about—” Leo trailed off, noticing that the stares of his friends weren’t exactly the most friendly. _

_ “I’ll just…” Leo felt a tightness in his chest, “I’ll just go do that.” _

_ “Yeah, you go do that,” Annabeth waved her hand dismissively and rolled her eyes. _

_ “Right…” Leo’s voice shook, Jason didn’t say anything but the look that he was giving Leo made him on edge, completely indifferent and possibly a little annoyed. _

_ Leo hadn’t rambled too much, right? He wasn’t talking for long enough to annoy them. _

_ He probably would have if he didn’t notice them staring at him oddly. Leo swallowed hard and spun around on his heel, returning up to the control panel. _

_ They were probably just having some sort of private conversation, Leo told himself, that’s why they seemed annoyed when I walked in. _

_ Leo didn’t like what the idea of a ‘private’ conversation was on the Argo II. They could all trust each other on the ship, right? _


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper goes to find Leo when he doesn't show up for breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story might get a bit confusing but hopefully it's not that bad.

“Where is Leo?” Annabeth asked exasperatedly, pacing back and forth in the mess hall, “isn’t he  _ so  _ insistent that all of us gather here in the morning and afternoon for whatever reason?”

“Hey, he’s probably in the engine room doing who knows what,” Percy said, shoveling a mouth full of blue pancakes in his mouth.

Annabeth sighed and plopped down in her chair.

“Yeah, he’s seemed pretty busy lately,” Jason agreed with a nod at Percy, “I’m sure that he’ll be in here soon, but I guess we don’t really have to wait around for him in here all day. Leo’ll come up soon enough.”

“Right, but I wanted to talk to him at breakfast, I was maybe hoping that he could show me how to use the controls a bit better so that we don’t have to rely on only him all the time,” Annabeth said, “I’m sure that kind of stress isn’t good for him to have.”

“You just want to know how to pilot the ship,” Percy said, pointing his fork accusingly at Annabeth, “you can’t sit around when there is knowledge to be gained and you can’t gain it.”

“Oh, shut up Seaweed brain, sue me for wanting to know more about the ship,” Annabeth rolled her eyes, taking a bit of the muffin that she had.

“If he doesn’t show up in a few minutes I’ll go down and get him,” Piper announced. Annabeth nodded at her gratefully.

Needless to say, Leo didn’t show up in a few minutes. Piper sighed and pushed her chair back, “I’ll go find him,” she left the room muttering under her breath, “that hypocrite, he always nags us to come to breakfast but he doesn’t even show up himself.”

“Well, at least we know that we’ve got someone that will have no problems physically dragging Leo up here by the ear,” Annabeth concluded, watching the door swing shut behind Piper.

“Leo is like a brother to Piper,” Jason said, “of course you aren’t going to have any problems roughing up your little brother.”

“Is Piper older than Leo?” Percy asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

Jason shrugged.

“Well, today since we don’t have any pit stops, we should work on training and make sure that we’re ready in case anything comes to attack us,” Annabeth said.

“Awesome, sparing on deck,” Percy shot a pointed look at Jason, “you, me and Frank, best man wins.”

“Seaweed brain, there is a difference between sparing and just outright being stupid and fighting each other,” Annabeth sighed, rubbing her temples.

“Not very  _ much  _ difference,” Percy pouted.

“Leo will pitch a fit if you break something like you did last time you three insisted on ‘sparring’,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, come on, we won’t break anything, right Frank?” Percy asked, looking over at Frank.

“Yeah… I guess we won’t break anything?” Frank furrowed his eyebrows.

“I, personally, think that is a lovely idea,” Jason said sincerely, glancing over at Percy.

“You just like trying to beat Percy up,” Annabeth pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head, looking over at Hazel for assistance.

“I think it’s a lovely idea, but maybe not all three of you at once, you can trade partners, also I want to join,” Hazel said, a small smile crossing her lips.

“Oh  _ come  _ on Hazel, you’re supposed to be a voice of reason,” Annabeth groaned.

“Sorry Annabeth, it seems fun,” Hazel twirled a strand of hair around her finger and smiled.

The door to the mess hall opened up and Piper shuffled in.

“Did you find Leo?” Annabeth asked, glancing over at her friend. Piper was fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

“Well… he wasn’t in the engine room, so I went to his cabin,” Piper said.

“Was he in his cabin?” Jason asked.

“Yeah… he was sleeping, but that’s the issue,” Piper scratched at the back of her neck, “I couldn’t wake him up.”

“What?” Jason stood up, “what do you mean, you can’t wake him up?”

“I tried everything that I could think of, but he wouldn’t wake up,” Piper insisted, “and you know that Leo isn’t a heavy sleeper.”

“Come on,” Jason marched towards the door, the rest of the demigods scrambled out of their seats and followed him. Annabeth gave Piper a worried glance, Piper only sighed and shrugged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a bit of a filler chapter I guess, I mean it had plot points but I didn't know what to put between the scenes of Piper leaving and coming back so I guess that's a filler. Anyway, thanks for reading so far.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo finally wakes up, but is it really Leo?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is where it might get confusing but I don't really know, this is as far as I have written in the two hours I spent writing. After this I have to do my school work and then I'll write more.

Jason was the first one in Leo’s cabin. The rest were close behind.

Leo was lying in bed, curled up in a ball on his side like he usually slept. The blankets were tangled at the foot of his bed.

He looked like he was sleeping normally.

Jason went over to his side and shook his shoulders, “Leo.”

“He wouldn’t wake up Jason,” Piper said, clasping her hands in front of herself nervously.

Leo was trembling slightly, but Jason didn’t think it was from the cold.

“That’s so unlike him, what’s going on?” Jason said, continuing to try and wake Leo.

Piper sat down on the edge of his bed, “he is still alive right, this isn’t some huge illusion,” Piper looked up at Hazel.

“He’s alive,” she promised with a nod.

“So, then what’s going on?” Percy furrowed his eyebrows, “maybe he had a lot of coffee last night and crashed.”

“Not helping Percy,” Annabeth scolded, elbowing him in the ribs. Percy grunted and rubbed his side.

“Maybe we just… have to wait and see how it plays out,” Frank suggested, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

“Yeah, we could just be overreacting and Percy could be right,” Piper agreed, even though she didn’t sound very convinced.

“Right,” Jason furrowed his eyebrows and looked down at Leo.

Suddenly, Leo screamed at the top of his lungs and shot up to a sitting position, almost whacking Jason in the forehead.

“Leo!” Piper exclaimed, reaching out to steady his shoulders, “Leo, what’s wrong?”

Leo sat in bed, staring down at his lap, swaying slightly. Piper had thought that he passed out again.

“Leo,” Piper touched his shoulder carefully, brushing his hair behind his ear.

“Woah,” Percy stepped a bit closer, “is he?”

Piper leaned down to get a better look at his face, Leo’s eyes were glossy and unfocused.

“Leo, hey, can you hear me?” Piper asked, waving her hand in front of his face.

“Is he okay?” Hazel asked cautiously.

“I don’t know,” Piper said honestly.

Then, Leo looked up startled, as if he just realized where he was.

“Leo, you with us?” Piper asked gently.

“Huh?” Leo muttered, his eyes were still glassy, but he seemed to be taking in his surroundings more.

“You wouldn’t wake up, we were worried,” Piper sighed with relief. Jason put a hand on Leo’s shoulder.

“Are you okay?” Jason asked. Annabeth looked between Piper, Jason and Leo then started to herd Percy, Hazel, and Frank out of the cabin. Deciding on giving the three of them some space since they were the closest. And she was sure that Leo wouldn’t want so many people hovering after he just woke up screaming.

“Yeah…” it seemed more like a question than an answer, Leo clenched and unclenched his fingers, glancing around the room, “what’s going on?”

“I went to come find you since you weren’t at breakfast, and you just wouldn’t wake up,” Piper explained, “were you… having a nightmare or something?”

“I…” Leo’s hand twitched, “I think so… I don’t remember much though.”

Piper furrowed her eyebrows, that was odd, usually, when someone on the Argo II woke up from a nightmare, they remembered it pretty vividly, demigod dreams were pretty important. Too important to just forget as soon as you woke up. But Piper didn’t voice any of those thoughts.

“Well, are you sure that you’re okay?” Jason asked, taking a step back so that he wasn’t hovering over Leo.

“Yeah… I’m okay,” Leo nodded, “I should… go and make sure that the engine is alright.” Leo swung his feet over the edge of the bed, when he stood up he stumbled and would have face-planted if Piper hadn’t caught his arm and steadied him.

“Are you sure that you’re okay?” she asked, “maybe you should stay in bed and rest for a bit longer.”

Leo waved his hand dismissively and pulled his arm out of Piper’s grasp, he smiled at her, “I’m fine Beauty Queen, trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

Piper glanced nervously at Jason but eventually nodded, “alright, Jason and I will be above decks with the others if you need us.”

“Alright,” Leo reached for his toolbelt which was resting on the workbench pressed against the wall of his cabin. He fumbled with the buckle for a few seconds before leaving the cabin. Leaving Jason and Piper alone.

“He seemed…” Jason started.

“Odd?” Piper furrowed her eyebrows, “not like himself?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, “but I guess we can’t really blame him if he  _ was  _ having a nightmare.”

“But usually you remember those kinds of things,” Piper said, taking Jason’s hand that he offered to her. Jason pulled her to her feet.

“Yeah, but maybe he just didn’t want to tell us right now, maybe he will eventually,” Jason insisted with a nod, “it’s not in our place to pry about it though.”

“Right,” Piper sighed, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

“Hey, I’m sure that Leo will be okay, but come on, you’ve got a sparring match to watch me win,” Jason said, grinning proudly.

“Since when?” Piper asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Since now,” Jason pulled Piper out of Leo’s cabin and up on deck, where Percy and Frank were already mid-duel. Annabeth and Hazel were off to the side, Annabeth was rolling her eyes and shaking her head, Hazel looked genuinely interested.

Piper snorted and rolled her eyes, “you guys are so dumb.”

“Hey, we even got Hazel in on it too,” Jason said, “you gotta give us some credit for that.”

Piper rolled her eyes and stood next to Annabeth, leaning against the ship railing.

“Boys,” Annabeth muttered, rolling her eyes. Piper agreed with a nod.

“And me,” Hazel added with a grin.

“And Hazel,” Annabeth agreed, sighing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading so far. I hope that y'all are excited for the rest of the story. Even though I really should have finished writing this before I published this... so I know where I'm going with it... I'm going to regret this...


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hazel is acting strangely

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I want to finish this story today but that's going to take a lot of writing, my last longer fic was only 9 chapters and I sat down and wrote that all in one sitting, but that day I don't think that I had schoolwork, but I'll try and get this done as quick as I can so I don't leave it unfinished for so long. Because I made the mistake of posting it before I was finished with it (like I've done for like all of my wattpad stories)

_ Leo figured that something was wrong the moment that Hazel stepped on deck. Firstly, she didn’t even need to say anything for Leo to know that she was there, he just knew that someone was there, and when he turned around, there Hazel was. Approaching Leo with a distasteful look on her face. _

_ Around half an hour ago, Leo had landed the ship in the water and they were cruising along peacefully, nothing had attacked the ship. _

_ “What’s up, Hazel?” Leo asked, putting on a cheerful grin, even though he felt anything but cheerful at the moment. He felt odd around the rest of the crew, and they were acting differently. More closed off and cold towards him, even if it was hard to notice in some people.  _

_ Hazel didn’t say anything, but she silently watched Leo for a few seconds. Before she had come up, Leo was looking for any sort of way that he would be able to repair Festus, Leo was  _ not  _ losing Festus twice now. So far he had had no luck trying to find the control disk or any sort of replacement. _

_ “How long is it going to take to reach Athens?” She finally asked, her tone cold, and void of barely any emotion. Like she didn’t want to be here but someone was forcing her to come up and talk to Leo. _

_ “Uhm,” Leo glanced out at the horizon, “I’m not sure, the navigation system is still a bit fuzzy from the wires being cut but I’m trying to get it back online.” _

_ “So we’re dead in the water?” Hazel asked, furrowing her eyebrows. _

_ “No…” Leo said, licking his lips nervously, “I mean, Festus knows which direction that we’re supposed to be going, and so does Percy.” Leo added that last part quickly, after remembering that Festus was down. _

_ “Festus is down,” Hazel said, ignoring anything that Leo said about Percy, then she repeated, “so we’re dead in the water?” _

_ “I wouldn’t really say… dead, the navigation system says that we’re going the correct way,” Leo insisted, “it’s just I don’t really know how  _ far  _ away we are. Hopefully, I can get the navigation system online soon.” _

_ “But you’re working on Festus right now, even though he’s broken beyond your repair.” _

_ Hazel’s words stung, but she was right. At the moment, Leo wouldn’t be able to get Festus back online until he was able to find his control disk or make a new one, which was impossible since that was way out of Leo’s skillset. _

_ “Right yeah…” Leo muttered, scratching at the back of his neck awkwardly, “I was just Uhm… making sure that I couldn’t do anything for him.” _

_ “Why are you so upset about it?” Hazel asked, in a very un-Hazel like way. _

_ “What do you mean?” Leo furrowed his eyebrows, stuffing his hands in his pants pockets, he walked up to Hazel, “Festus is my friend too you know, I’m going to be upset when I’m not able to fix him.” _

_ “Of course, of course,” Hazel held her hands up in surrender and backed away, “I mean, he’s only a machine, I don’t see how a machine could be your friend. Especially since getting everyone on this ship to Athens is much more important than fixing the simple mechanical figurehead.” _

_ “What are you talking about Hazel? This is unlike you,” Leo also backed up away from Hazel, her words stung but he couldn’t disagree with them. He was being silly, worrying about Festus over his own friends. He reached into his toolbelt, prepared to attack if he needed to. Hopefully, he wouldn’t need to attack, he liked Hazel and couldn’t bear to hurt her. _

_ “What?” Hazel cocked her head to one side, “I just came up here to tell you that Jason and Annabeth wanted to talk to you about some things below decks, I think that Annabeth wants you to try and teach her how to man some things in the engine room,” She smiled politely and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears, “they told me to come get you.” _

_ “Right,” Leo let out a slow breath and scratched at the back of his neck, “tell them I’ll be right down.” _

_ Hazel’s gold eyes regarded him with something that Leo wasn’t able to identify at first.  _

_ Later, as he was making his way below deck, as he mulled it over he realized that it was a mix of pity and interest. Chills ran down Leo’s spine as he neared the engine room where supposedly Annabeth and Jason were. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have to go finish my homework and then I'll write more but I do have another chapter that I was able to write in my small break so. Thanks for reading.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth starts to get suspicious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I know where I'm going with this fic? Barely. Am I going to continue to belittle myself because I posted this without finishing it and pulled the same mistake I did on my wattpad? Yes. Anyway enjoy the chapter.

“Hey Leo,” Annabeth said, leaning her shoulder against the doorframe to Leo’s cabin.

“Yeah?” Leo jumped and spun around, he was tinkering with some blueprints that he had found in the bunker nine back at Camp Half-blood.

“I was wondering,” Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot, she even kind of looked sheepish, “if you could show me how to work the controls of the ship. It’s interesting and I think that it must be a lot of pressure on you to be the only one that knows how to pilot it well.”

Annabeth had thought over what she was going to say for a while, it was odd for her to be the one to ask someone how to do something, but she had to—somehow—swallow her pride and go ask Leo.

“Oh…” Leo faltered, he shifted the wrench that he was holding between his hands absentmindedly, “right, Uhm.”

“If you’re busy I understand, it could wait until another time,” Annabeth said, glancing suspiciously at the items that were collected on his workbench. It didn’t look like he was very busy. To Annabeth, it looked more like he was just messing around with things. But Annabeth wasn’t a mechanic so she had no real way of knowing what Leo was doing unless he told her.

“Yeah, uh,” Leo turned back to the workbench, still shifting the wrench back and forth between his hands, “could you leave?”

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows, that was a pretty rude way to say it but she understood what he wanted, obviously, since he was so blunt about it.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Annabeth muttered, shutting Leo’s cabin door behind her. Leo didn’t say anything back to her. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and wandered up on deck, where Jason, Percy, Frank, and Hazel had finally gotten tired of sparring. Percy and Jason were sprawled on the deck (asleep) and Frank and Hazel were playing cards. Piper was standing at the helm, gazing over the controls.

“You didn’t want to play cards with Frank and Hazel?” Annabeth asked, stepping up beside Piper, she shrugged.

“Eh, I played one game, lost, and got bored with it. Then I figured that I could also try and learn how to control the ship with you,” Piper said.

“So you’re just being a sore loser?” Annabeth chuckled.

“Maybe,” Piper looked around, “is Leo coming?”

Annabeth frowned, “no, he made it pretty clear that he was too busy.”

“Hm, I guess we’ll have to learn another time,” Piper said, but she also frowned, like she was deep in thought.

“Well, I guess nothing else to do than to join Frank and Hazel in their game of cards,” Annabeth insisted, trying to lighten the mood, even though she herself was quite curious about what Leo was doing and why he shut her out like that.

Piper sighed and followed Annabeth over to where Frank and Hazel were, the two girls plopped down next to Frank and Hazel.

“So, I suppose Leo isn’t going to teach you how to man the ship?” Hazel asked, barely looking up from her cards as she thought over her turn.

“Nope,” Annabeth told the three what had happened when she went down to ask Leo to teach her.

“That’s unlike him,” Piper frowned, watching Frank pick up two cards.

“Usually, he’d at least make some sort of joke about it before shooing me away,” Annabeth said.

“Or he’d at least humor you for a while, and or try to prank you in the process,” Piper agreed.

“Which makes him insufferable to work with,” Annabeth rolled her eyes, waiting patiently for Hazel and Frank’s game to end.

“He could be a bit shaken up still from this morning,” Frank suggested with a shrug.

“Can you guys shut  _ up _ ,” Percy whined from where he was laying down a few feet away, one arm draped over his eyes, the other he was using as a makeshift pillow, “Some of us are trying to lay down in peace, it’s hard to take a nap when you guys are talking.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t try and take a nap on the deck while everyone else is up here,” Annabeth shot back, glaring at her boyfriend, despite the fact that he couldn’t see.

“Ugh,” Percy groaned rolling over on his side, his back facing the others. Jason must have been fast asleep because Annabeth was sure that if he wasn’t he would have said something by now, at least a comment about the conversation that everyone else was having.

“Anyway, what were you saying Frank?” Hazel asked, smiling up at Frank as she won the game. Frank sighed.

“He could still be shaken up from this morning, it seemed to be a pretty bad nightmare, I guess he just wants to be alone for now,” Frank insisted, collecting their cards and starting to shuffle them, “I know that I  _ don’t  _ want to be alone when I had a nightmare, but Leo might be different.”

“But, usually when Leo wants to be alone, he’ll hide in the least obvious places, not his cabin,” Piper shook her head, “that doesn’t matter right now, we can go to check on him after this game.”

“Don’t be a sore loser if I win again Piper,” Hazel warned as Frank dealt the cards.

“I can’t promise anything,” Piper insisted.

“You too Annabeth, don’t be a sore loser,” Percy muttered. If Annabeth had anything on her she would have thrown it at him, unfortunately, cards weren’t the best to throw at your annoying boyfriend.

“Go take a nap Percy,” Annabeth responded.

“I  _ would  _ if you guys weren’t so loud with your conversations,” Percy insisted, peeking over at Annabeth, he tried to glare, but with his arm half-covering his face and his hair disheveled, it didn’t really have it’s desired effect.

“Piper, you go first,” Frank said.

“Right,” Piper nodded and looked down at her cards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be some more chapters later in the day hopefully, if not there will be some later tonight (hopefully) since I—for some reason—like to write fanfiction at one in the morning.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo meets with Jason and Annabeth in the engine room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I finished writing the entire story so I will be posting all the rest of the chapters today so WHoooOo.

_ Annabeth was in the engine room when Leo got there, Jason was standing off to the side, far enough to not intrude but still close enough to see and hear their conversations. It made Leo nervous, what would Jason need if Annabeth just wanted to know how something worked. _

_ “Took you long enough,” Annabeth rolled her eyes, crossing her arms in front of her chest. _

_ “Sorry, I was… busy with something,” Leo was really stalling but he couldn’t just admit that. Annabeth scared him on any normal day, but the way that she was acting now, scared him even more. _

_ “Right,” Annabeth said, she stood confidently, staring at Leo as if trying to see who would break first. Obviously, it was Leo. He glanced down at his feet, a pit of dread settling in his stomach. _

_ “Jason, what’re you doing down here?” Leo asked, forcing himself to smile and try to make a joke, “I didn’t think that you of all people would be interested in anything in the engine room.” Leo chuckled weakly but neither Annabeth or Jason budged. _

_ “There’s been an issue,” Annabeth said, folding her hands in front of herself politely. _

_ “What do you mean?” Leo asked, looking around Annabeth, “I checked the engine room this morning, everything was in proper working order, something couldn’t have gone wrong in that short time period.” _

_ “Of course,” Jason scoffed, which was the first thing that Jason had said in Leo’s presence all day, “the first thing that you’ll think about is your machines.” _

_ “What?” Leo’s heart skipped a beat, “No, I mean, you guys are in the engine room so I’m going to assume that’s where there’s an issue right… right?” Leo looked back and forth between the two of them. _

_ “Maybe, but not right now,” Annabeth leaned back against a tall metal pole that was attached to the ceiling for support. _

_ “What is that supposed to mean?” Leo asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously, he felt guilty for some reason, well obviously one being that he  _ did  _ immediately think of the ship when Annabeth said that there was a problem, “if there was a problem with something else, shouldn’t we all have a meeting in the mess hall or something?” _

_ “We could have,” Annabeth shrugged, “But Hazel and Frank don’t care enough, Percy is busy making sure the ship is running smoothly, because  _ you  _ obviously are incapable of doing that yourself and Piper is—” Annabeth looked over at Jason, waiting for him to go on. _

_ “Piper is, well she’s somewhere,” Jason said, crossing his arms in front of his chest, “which leaves only Annabeth and I being the only ones that truly care enough about the issue to address it.” _

_ “What issue? There’s no issue with the ship besides Festus being down and no one is hurt,” Leo said frantically. _

_ “See what I mean?” Annabeth asked, looking over at Jason exasperatedly. _

_ “How oblivious can one person be?” Jason shook his head in fake sympathy, “Leo, the problem is with you.” _

_ “Huh,” Leo felt a shiver run down his spine, “what do you—What are you talking about? I’m fine.” _

_ “Oh, we can imagine so,” Jason took a step towards Leo. _

_ “What?” Leo took a step back, his heart fluttering in his chest, he scanned the room, looking for any sort of chance to escape. He could probably find a place to hide if he needed to, the engine room was full of all sorts of crawl spaces that only Leo could fit in. But the only exit was behind him. _

_ As he continued to back up, Leo bumped into something else, spinning around he stood face to face with Piper. She looked down at him indifferently, like she was only there because Annabeth or Jason convinced her. _

_ “Where were you?” Annabeth asked. _

_ “Guys, what’s going on,” Leo faced Jason, furrowing his eyebrows, “you aren’t really Jason, you can’t be. You don’t act like Jason.” _

_ “How do you know how your friends act when they don’t have to pretend to like you or to pretend to be your friends?” Jason asked, cocking his head to one side. _

_ “No… they’re not... you aren’t my friends!” Leo swallowed hard, wishing that he could just understand what in the Hades was going on. _

_ “We aren’t your friends no,” Annabeth agreed with a nod, “we never were your friends in the first place. We just had to pretend to be nice to you because of the prophecy.” _

_ “What?” Leo was amazed that he could still splutter out in English, “The prophecy isn’t even over, we still have to get to Athens.” _

_ “And that’s where you drew the line, Leo,” Piper said, her tone cold. _

_ Jason clicked his tongue and shook his head, “you even destroyed Festus in your plan, I couldn’t believe it at first but you’re the only one that would know how to perfectly deactivate Festus, and would know just the right amount to cut so that you wouldn’t get electrocuted but it would also sever the connection to the control panel.” _

_ “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I never did that!” Leo looked back and forth frantically between Jason, Piper, and Annabeth. _

_ “Really? We caught you red-handed Leo,” Annabeth said, “you even tried to cover it up by saying there was an ambush, there could never have been an ambush right under our noses. And they wouldn’t have stolen Festus’ control disk or cut that wire. They would have stolen things.” _

_ “No,” Leo shook his head, “I didn’t do that. I wouldn’t have.” _

_ Jason mimicked reaching into a toolbelt. _

_ Leo’s heart sank, he reached into his own toolbelt, he felt something familiar and pulled it out. It was Festus’ control disk. _

_ “See?” Annabeth shook her head, “you crossed the line, Leo, trying to sabotage our quest.” _

_ “I—I didn’t… I would never,” Leo could barely focus, he could barely hear the others over the sound of his own blood rushing in his ears. _

_ “Just give it up Leo,” Annabeth said, “you’ll never fit in with us. So might as well get it over with.” _

_ Leo’s eyes widened with surprise, “you’re not… I never told Annabeth about that…” _

_ Several emotions flashed over Annabeth’s face, confusion, irritation, amusement, then curiosity again. _

_ “What do you mean?” She asked, cocking her head to one side. _

_ “With Nemesis, I never told everyone else that…” Leo insisted, “you can’t be my friends.” _

_ “You never told anyone because you knew that it’s true,” Piper put her hands on his shoulders. Leo jerked away as if he were burned by the touch, but that was impossible since he was immune to fire. _

_ “No, no, no, no,” Leo shook his head, “none of this can be real.” _

_ “Stop being childish Leo,” Jason said, “just face the facts already, we’re giving them to you clear as day and you still won’t listen.” _

_ “It’s okay Leo,” Piper said, and Leo could hear the charmspeak dripping off her tone, “you just need to stay out of the way while we can defeat Gaea alright, it’s simple, and no one will get hurt. It would be a real help to the whole mission if you would just stay out of the way because then we wouldn’t have to pretend to be nice to you.” _

_ For a second, Leo almost believed her, he almost gave in to her request, almost. Leo swallowed hard and shook his head, “I’m leaving, I need to… try and fix Festus now that I’ve found the control disk.” Truthfully, all Leo wanted was to be alone. _

_ Neither of them said anything, Leo hurried out of the engine room up to the top deck. It was starting to rain but Leo didn’t care, he just needed to get out before he started to suffocate in the stuffiness of the below deck. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting a bit suspicious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I don't know how good this story is but sure if you're reading this far, thanks.

When it was time for dinner, Leo almost didn’t show up, just as they were about to send Piper to go fetch him. Leo appeared in the doorway. He was covered in soot and grease, like how he was 24/7 during the construction of the Argo II.

“Took you long enough,” Piper said, rolling her eyes as she plopped back down in her chair.

“Where have you been all day man?” Percy asked, “we haven’t seen you all day.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” Leo smiled and waved his hand dismissively, “I’ve been looking at some blueprints that I found in bunker nine before we left.”

Piper glanced over at Leo, who was sitting in the chair right next to her. His hand twitched under the table.

“Leo are you okay? You’ve been acting different ever since this morning,” Piper asked, examining Leo’s face for any sort of hints. She noticed that his brown eyes appeared to be a lighter shade of brown than they usually were, but that could have just been a trick of the lights.

“Huh? Yeah, why wouldn’t I be okay Beauty Queen?” he grinned at her.

“You’ve just… been acting strangely,” Piper squinted, his grin seemed to be a bit too forced, but Piper could just be overthinking things again, over-analyzing every detail. That was Annabeth’s job.

“Yeah, you have been acting a bit different today,” Jason agreed, “does it have anything to do with this morning?”

Leo held his hands up in front of himself defensively, “what is this? Interrogate Leo hour? Do you want to tie me up and hold me under the light too?” He chuckled weakly. Guiltily even. Very unlike Leo.

“You know, I might take up on that offer,” Piper said suspiciously. Leo looked over at her, a flash of nervousness on his face, but it left before Piper could spot it.

“It was a joke Piper, jeez, I’ve just been trying to keep myself busy all day,” Leo said.

“Let’s just enjoy our dinner okay?” Percy suggested, glancing back and forth at Leo and Piper, somehow noticing the obvious tension rising in the room.

“Right,” Piper finally relented, turning back to the plate in front of her. Leo sighed and leaned against the back of his chair. A few moments later after eating intense silence, Leo shuddered and tensed.

Piper glanced over at him suspiciously. Leo’s eyes glazed over before refocusing.

“Huh?” he whispered, barely audible to anyone that wasn’t paying attention. But Piper was paying attention. Leo’s voice was shaky and uncertain. 

He started to fidget more in his chair and Piper realized what was bothering her the most, Leo wasn’t fidgeting as much as he usually did before.

“Leo?” Piper asked, grabbing his attention. Leo looked over at Piper and his eyes widened. Jason glanced over at the two curiously, everyone around the table was gradually starting to notice.

“Oh, Uhm…” Leo spluttered, he shot up from his chair, stumbling over his own feet, “look at the… look at the time I got to—uhm, get back to Festus.”

Before anyone could say anything Leo practically ran out of the mess hall. Piper had noticed how badly he was trembling.

“What was that about?” Hazel asked, her eyebrows furrowed with worry.

“That was an entire 180 of a personality change,” Percy said, his eyes wide with surprise.

“What’s gotten into him?” Piper muttered, mostly to herself as she pushed her chair back, “I’m going to go see where he ran off to.”

"I’ll come too,” Jason offered, pushing his plate aside and standing up as well. Piper nodded at him in appreciation. They both left the mess hall in search of Leo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading so far.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to get a little weird, Leo just wants to know what's going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where things might get confusing but who knows, I surely don't and I wrote the fic.

_ Leo let the rain wash over him as he fixed Festus, ignoring how the cold practically seeped into his bones. Leo heard footsteps approaching him. _

_ “Oh!” Hazel chirped, “you finally found Festus’ control disk?” _

_ Leo hated how cheery and fake her voice sounded, his hands shook as he tried to reattach the wires. He hoped that if he didn’t say anything and just ignored her, Hazel would go away. _

_ “That’s lovely,” Hazel stepped closer to where Leo was, “I was wondering what Jason and Annabeth wanted down below, they wouldn’t tell me.” _

_ Hazel put her hand on Leo’s shoulder and Leo flinched away. Almost tossing the control disk into the ocean. His heart skipped a beat and he scrambled away from Hazel. _

_ “What are you doing?” Hazel asked, cocking her head to one side, “I’m not going to bite.” She chuckled and stuffed her hands in her pockets. _

_ The world flickered. _

Leo was sitting in the mess hall, his friends were sitting around him but he barely registered it. His clothes were dry and he felt...warm. But there was a chilling feeling that seemed to be from inside him.

“Leo?” Piper asked.

Leo flinched, thinking back to their conversation in the control room. Suddenly Leo realized that he needed to get out of there, a part of him didn’t trust them, he didn’t know what they were going to do. What they were really thinking.

Leo muttered some sort of excuse and scrambled out of the mess hall as fast as he could without causing anymore suspicion than he already had. As soon as he burst out on the deck, the warm sunlight washed over his face. 

It was just raining though…

Festus whirred and clicked happily upon seeing Leo. 

But Festus was deactivated…

Leo gasped as a white-hot blast of pain shot through his head. He pressed his back against the wall and slid down it so that he was sitting on the floor.

“No, no, no,” he whispered to himself. But he already was feeling the tension leave his body and his limbs moving without his control.

The world flickered again.

_ “Leo?” Hazel asked, her hair was starting to plaster to her face from the rain. Leo wondered why she was out here with no umbrella. _

_ “They just,” Leo swallowed, his mouth had gone dry. What was going on? “They just, Uhm, wanted to know what some mechanics that I added the other day did.” _

_ “Oh,” Hazel looked kind of disappointed, “I was sure that they were going to scold you.” _

_ “Scold me for what?” Leo asked, looking around, the ship was still sailing in the ocean, rain pelting them. _

_ “For breaking the control panel obviously,” Hazel said, “we all know that it was you that did it.” _

_ “I didn’t do it, I swear,” Leo said, practically begging at this point, for someone to believe him, for someone to reassure him. _

_ “Hm,” Hazel pursed her lips, “I guess you really are stupid, truly the seventh wheel.” _

_ It hit worse coming from Hazel, she had been there with Nemesis, she truly knew. _

“Leo, what are you doing?” Piper asked, her voice almost an octave higher than it normally was.

The violent change in scenery nearly threw Leo off balance. He had somehow climbed up the mast and was looking out into the distance. They were flying, the sun was starting to set casting a warm yellow glow.

“Argo II to Leo,” Piper called up again. Leo couldn’t bring himself to look down, he couldn’t bear to see whatever expression was on her face. Leo screwed his eyes shut, taking deep breaths.

What was going on?

The scenes around him kept shifting and changing and Leo didn’t know what to believe anymore. One situation was obviously real, and one was fake. Leo couldn’t tell which one was which though.

“Leo, man,” Jason’s voice was right next to him, Leo jumped and nearly toppled down onto the deck. Jason gripped his arm and steadied him, “Leo, look at me.”

Leo slowly opened his eyes and glanced over at Jason, he was sitting on the mast next to him. He had a concerned look on his face.

“What’s…” Leo trailed off, his voice was hoarse and his head was swimming, he couldn’t focus, “what’s going on?” 

“We want to ask you the same question,” Jason said softly. Putting his hand on Leo’s arm. Leo flinched and scooted away.

“Don’t touch me,” Leo begged weakly. He was so confused and scared at the same time, and there was a pounding in his head that wouldn’t go away.

_ “Stop it.”  _ A voice inside Leo’s head demanded, his headache got worse and his vision began to blur.

“No,” Leo begged, curling in on himself. Leo dug his nails into his arm, the pain kept him grounded.

“Leo,” Jason got his attention once again, “are you okay?”

Leo didn’t trust his voice, he looked over at Jason, fear shimmering in his eyes. Slowly, he shook his head.

His vision blurred again and Leo tried to dig his nails into his arm harder, but it became harder and harder to clench his hands. The pain started to fade away.

_ Then the rain started pelting down. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's only a few more chapters left after this. I actually don't know if Leo told the rest of the crew on the Argo II about what Nemesis said to him so I just went with whatever. Bold of anyone to assume I'd remember that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to make a little more sense, just a little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oho the big reveal is about to happen but I'm sure from the tags you can probably guess what's going to happen.

Jason’s eyes widened with surprise. Leo had looked so scared, then his face went slack and his shoulders slumped. Jason thought that Leo might have passed out, then Leo shuddered and looked up.

For a moment, Leo’s eyes glowed a bright golden. Jason’s breath caught in his throat.

“Eidolon,” Jason exclaimed, scrambling away.

Leo twitched and shuddered again,  _ “stupid pest.” _

His voice was distorted and so obviously  _ not _ Leo that it made Jason’s heart sink. How long had the Eidolon been back? How long had they not noticed?

“Pipes,” Jason called.

“I heard you,” Piper called back, she was standing on the deck of the Argo II, her hand already reaching for her dagger.

“How did you come back?” Jason asked, immediately grabbing Leo’s arm. Leo tried to yank his arm out of Jason’s grasp, but Jason held on tighter. 

_ “ _ I  _ did not come  _ back _ ,”  _ the Eidolon said. Jason called upon the winds and soon enough both Leo and Jason were back on the deck of the Argo II.

“Why are you here then?” Piper demanded, “tell us why?”

The Eidolon shuddered again,  _ “because the Earth Mother needed me to—”  _ it trailed off,  _ “no, I’m stronger than my brothers. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” _

“What did you do to Leo?” Jason demanded, gripping Leo’s arm hard.

_ “I didn’t do anything, but I am more powerful than my brothers. He’s just taking some well-needed rest,”  _ The Eidolon hissed. At least its voice was so distorted Jason had no doubts that it wasn’t Leo. It’s golden eyes burned brighter.

“We need to tell the others,” Jason looked at Piper, she nodded.

“Are you the only one here?” Piper asked, her voice thickly laced with charmspeak. 

_ “Yes,”  _ The Eidolon grunted reluctantly.

Piper sighed. Jason grabbed Leo’s other arm and held it behind his back. Now Leo started to thrash, trying to get out of Jason’s grip.

_ “Let GO of me,”  _ Its voice split, echoing in the empty sky.

“Not a chance,” Jason said firmly.

_ “Stop it! Stop it! Stupid pest,”  _ The Eidolon started to stop thrashing. Leo tensed up. He then slumped forward, digging his nails into his palms.

“Get out of me…” Leo whimpered, his voice normal again. Jason briefly loosened his grip.

“Leo?” Jason asked, “what’s going on?”

“I don’t  _ know _ ,” Leo insisted, his voice desperate.

“How did it get in here?” Piper asked she looked back and forth between Jason and Leo.

“I don’t  _ know  _ that either,” Leo muttered, “how do I know that I can trust you?”

“What?” Piper looked appalled, “Leo what are you talking about? There aren’t any more Eidolons on board.”

“Which one is real?” Leo gasped, he looked up at Piper, desperation in his eyes. Piper wanted to understand what he was talking about but she truly didn’t understand. Blood dripped down Leo’s hand onto the deck. Jason noticed it right away and let go of Leo’s arms.

“You’re bleeding!” Jason exclaimed.

“I want to know which is real, did it rain?” Leo asked, his words quicking in pace, “Festus was broken, I broke Festus. I don’t know how it happened. Everything was wrong, you were all wrong, it was all just a game. The controls were broken, Hazel and Annabeth said that I broke them. What is  _ REAL _ ?”

Leo was gasping for breath, almost in hysterics, “I don’t understand.”

“Leo, what the Eidolon was showing you isn’t real,” Jason insisted glancing down worriedly at the blood dripping down Leo’s hand.

“How do I know that it isn’t just showing me this too? How do I know you guys aren’t just pretending,” Leo shook his head quickly.

“Leo, just calm down, the Eidolon is trying to mess with your head,” Piper held her hands out defensively, charmspeak lacing her voice. Leo must have picked up on it.

“Stop it!” he shouted, his fingers bursting into flames. Jason let go of his arms and Leo dropped to his knees.

Festus creaked and whirred urgently, Leo seemed to understand what he was saying. The flames died down and Leo’s entire body relaxed.

Jason and Piper both stared at each other, their eyes wide with fear. Leo didn’t move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one chapter left.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are finally resolved. Everything is back to normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter and the ending might be a little crappy but I've been sitting at my computer for almost 12 hours trying to do my schoolwork and trying to finish this fic so I didn't leave it unfinished for a few months.

They had begun to fear that he had passed out with how still Leo was.

“Leo?” Piper asked cautiously.

“What is going on up here?” Annabeth exclaimed, bursting through the door, Percy, Hazel, and Frank were right at her heels, “we head a ton of shouting.”

“The Eidolon is back,” Jason explained, “maybe we should tie him up.”

Hazel seemed to understand, she disappeared below deck.

Piper frowned, “what are we going to do, I don’t know if my charmspeak will work on it this time. It said that it was stronger than the others.”

Jason grabbed Leo’s arms again, they were warm but not threatening to burst into flames. Hazel appeared again, a length of rope in her arms. Reluctantly, Jason tied Leo up. He hated to do it, but he couldn’t be sure about who was who. If the Eidolon was able to hide under their noses for however long then who knew if it was really Leo talking.

Leo made no attempt to move or get up while Jason was wrapping the rope around his arms and torso.

“Leo?” Piper muttered, sitting down in front of Leo.

“Mm,” Leo murmured, sniffling slightly.

“Are you with us?” 

Leo shrugged weakly, “I don’t know if you guys are real.”

Piper’s heart hurt, she hated seeing Leo like this. Tied up and not even trying to resist. If he was all in there, Leo would at least be trying to escape the bonds.

“It’s going to be okay,” there was no charmspeak in her voice. Leo nodded weakly.

“My head hurts,” Leo muttered.

“How are we going to get it out of him?” Annabeth asked, scratching her chin.

“It seemed to be pretty good at resisting my charmspeak,” Piper explained, standing back up. She glanced down worriedly at Leo. The Eidolon didn’t seem to be trying to take over, or Leo was just resisting it, which would explain how tired he looked.

“Yeah,” Annabeth frowned, deep in thought. Percy watched them curiously. Hazel was shifting her weight from foot to foot worriedly. Frank was standing beside her, curious.

Leo looked up at her, his eyes glowing gold.

_ “He is not as weak as he looks I suppose,”  _ The Eidolon said, startling all six of the demigods on deck. Its voice was strained but still very obvious.

“Eidolon,” Piper started, she glared daggers at It. It only regarded her with a weak smile.

_ “What do you have to say?” _ It urged,  _ “I’m afraid that I’m starting to get quite bored of sitting and waiting around, and it’s getting quite late out. I’m sure that your friend would love to go and take a nice long  _ siesta  _ but he can’t.” _

It chuckled, barely thrashing at the bonds,  _ “he can only hold on so long. He still doesn’t even believe that all of you are real.” _

“Why wouldn’t he believe that we’re real?” Percy asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

_ “Oh, you know. I suppose it would mess with your head a little if for almost 12 hours your mind has been played with. Showing all the people you thought were friends, turn on you and accuse you of such horrible things,”  _ It shrugged and leaned back against the mast,  _ “But I suppose I wouldn’t know what that’s like.” _

It grinned at Piper. Piper hated that It matched Leo’s mischievous smile almost exactly, apart from the golden eyes, Piper would have never been able to tell that it wasn’t Leo. And that filled her with guilt, she didn’t even know her own best friend well enough to know that it wasn’t him.

“Piper,” Hazel started, she put her hand on Piper’s shoulder, “you’re the only one that can get rid of them. You have to try.”

The smile melted off of Leo’s face and he snarled at Piper,  _ “you can’t get the best of me, silly daughter of Aphrodite.” _

Piper’s eyes widened with surprise, “Maybe  _ I  _ can’t beat you alone, but Leo is stronger like you said.”

_ “His energy is low, his will is shattering,”  _ The Eidolon snarled trying to break out of the bonds.

“Your energy is also low,” Piper responded, she straightened her back, “Leo I know that you’re in there, hold out for just a bit longer.”

Even though her voice was laced with charmspeak, Piper didn’t think that she needed it. She saw the gold in the Eidolon’s eyes flicker.

“Eidolon,” She spoke firmly, It cocked Its head to one side, trying to keep up its tough act.

“You will leave Leo Valdez’s body,” she spoke as confidently as she could, lacing charmspeak heavily, “and you will swear on the river Styx to  _ never  _ come back on this ship or possess any one of us. Never again.”

It gritted Its teeth, but Piper could see the gold in Its eyes dying. Leo’s hand twitched. She smiled, Leo was working with her here.

“Swear it on the Styx,” She demanded, “that you will never return here or possess anyone on this ship.”

_ “I—”  _ The Eidolon tried to fight but it was out of strength,  _ “I swear on the river Styx.” _

“Leave,” Piper demanded, forcing all her frustration and worry into her charmspeak. Leo slumped forward, a sob escaping his throat.

“Leo?” Jason asked, his voice full of relief.

“You can untie me now Sparky,” Leo said in a weak attempt at a joke, his voice was shaking and he refused to lift his head.

“Look at us,” Piper said and out of habit, a little charmspeak was infused in her words.

Reluctantly, Leo looked up at them, his eyes were the normal chocolate brown, but tears were welled up in his eyes.

Jason cut the ropes holding Leo back. Leo dropped his head down and covered his face with his hands.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, almost too quiet to be heard.

“It’s not your fault Leo,” Piper said, she knelt down and put her hand on Leo’s shoulder, “you tried hard to fight it.”

“I didn’t believe you,” Leo said.

“It’s okay, we’re real and we’re your friends,” Piper pulled Leo into her embrace.

“You said that you were just pretending, that it was better if I was out of your way,” Leo spluttered, trying his hardest not to cry.

“That was the Eidolon, that was Gaea trying to mess with your head so that she can manipulate you,” Piper insisted, rubbing gentle circles on his back. Jason knelt down next to the two.

“Do you believe us?” Jason asked, “when we say that we are truly your friends and that we would never just pretend. You are important, to all of us and to this quest.” Jason looked over at where everyone else was standing. Hazel was the next person to kneel down.

“Everything that happens from now on, we all can tackle it together, this is our quest, and we’re more than friends Leo,” she said, “we’re all  _ family  _ and family sticks together no matter what.”

Percy and Annabeth knelt close to them next, “It’s better when you’re  _ in  _ the way Leo,” Annabeth said.

“You keep us all from getting too serious at times, and you’re always there to lighten the mood,” Percy grinned.

Frank sat down, “Hazel and I wouldn’t even be here right now if it weren’t for you Leo. You’re pretty dang smart too.”

Festus whirred and creaked. Leo sniffled and laughed, which took the rest of the seven by surprise.

He pulled away from Piper and started to full-on laugh. He wrapped his arms around his stomach, tears flowing freely down his face now but he was laughing.

“That was the sappiest thing I’ve ever heard you guys,” Leo insisted, trying to catch his breath, but tears were still rolling down his cheeks and he was still laughing, “thank you.”

“Don’t mention it, Leo,” Piper rubbed his shoulder and smiled.

Festus continued to make a series of creaking and whirring.

“I know, thank you Festus,” Leo called, grinning at the bronze dragon head.

Leo wiped his eyes on the back of his hand and stood up, his knees trembled but he stayed standing.

“I think that I’m going to go to bed now,” Leo insisted, “I’m exhausted.”

“Right,” Jason stood up as well, “if you ever need some help with anything you can always come to any of us.”

Leo smiled weakly and nodded, “thanks. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Piper nodded, the rest of the crew said their goodnight’s and Leo disappeared below decks to his cabin. The rest of the crew dispersed to do whatever, Annabeth and Percy taking their shift for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope that you enjoyed this story whatever it is. Sorry if the ending sucks a little. Thanks for reading, and remember, comments are my life. Love you all.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I hope that you enjoyed this first chapter, there will be more to come, as I try to publish what I have written in the past two hours (give or take).


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